QUOTE: Originally posted by Philcal I rode the Daylight Los Angeles to San Francisco in 1953. It was a thrill. I don't recall the Daylight as a real speedster, but it ran pretty fast once that big GS-4 got a wheel on it. It made fairly frequent stops, but it still beat driving especially in that day and age. In my opinion, it would beat driving today. The Southern Pacific still solicited passengers in those days, and the onboard service was superb. So was the food. Great memories.
QUOTE: Originally posted by andrechapelon QUOTE: Originally posted by Philcal I rode the Daylight Los Angeles to San Francisco in 1953. It was a thrill. I don't recall the Daylight as a real speedster, but it ran pretty fast once that big GS-4 got a wheel on it. It made fairly frequent stops, but it still beat driving especially in that day and age. In my opinion, it would beat driving today. The Southern Pacific still solicited passengers in those days, and the onboard service was superb. So was the food. Great memories. Not really, at least in terms of time. The schedule for the Coast Daylight was 9 3/4 hours for 470 miles (average about 48 mph). You can make the drive from 3rd and Townsend (site of old SP station) to LAUPT in less than 8 hours even going down 101. In terms of sheer enjoyment, the train beats the car any time. Andre
QUOTE: Originally posted by original_coaster QUOTE: Originally posted by andrechapelon QUOTE: Originally posted by Philcal I rode the Daylight Los Angeles to San Francisco in 1953. It was a thrill. I don't recall the Daylight as a real speedster, but it ran pretty fast once that big GS-4 got a wheel on it. It made fairly frequent stops, but it still beat driving especially in that day and age. In my opinion, it would beat driving today. The Southern Pacific still solicited passengers in those days, and the onboard service was superb. So was the food. Great memories. Not really, at least in terms of time. The schedule for the Coast Daylight was 9 3/4 hours for 470 miles (average about 48 mph). You can make the drive from 3rd and Townsend (site of old SP station) to LAUPT in less than 8 hours even going down 101. In terms of sheer enjoyment, the train beats the car any time. Andre A slight misapprehension here: Today you can indeed make that drive in less than 8 hours. In 1953, however, that was a very different drive. The highway ran via streets through cities like San Jose, Salinas, King City (oh, joy of joys!), etc., instead of the modern-day freeway route. Even the fastest route out of San Francisco (from 3rd & Townsend) would have been something like: 3rd to Folsom, Folsom to 8th Street on-ramp to James Lick Freeway (which then terminated at Bayshore), Bayshore Blvd. to El Camino Real (South San Francisco). Factor in a slower average traveling speed for the autos of that day (due to less sophisticated highway construction methods), fuel stops, unforeseen traffic tieups in one burg or another, and that travel time goes 'way up from the current 8-hour figure (which can also take a hit depending on freeway snarls in certain locales). Not only was the Coast Daylight faster, it was a whole lot less hassle! Regards, Paul
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